Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_500.lzh/D_537.TXT

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Cs,~P. YI.                              OF FAITH IN GOD AND IN CHRIST.

faith on God and Christ as believing men do, but by
sight; they are possessed of the beatific vision of God,
anti are always beholding the face of our Father in hea-
ven, and are continually in his presence, waiting upon
him and worshipping him, and enjoy complete and in-
expressible happiness in their access unto him, and
communion with him, and in the service of him.
They are ministerlug spirits to Christ, always attend
him, ever behold the glories of his person and the ful-
ness of his grace; one part of the great mystery, of
godliness .respecting Christ is, that he is seen ofangds,
and being reedred up into glory, is the object of their
vision continually, 1 Tim. iii. 16. much less are the
evil angels the sub.'lects of this grace. There is a kind
of faith that is ascribed to them, the belief of a God,
and that there is but one; thou believest there is one
God, thou dart well, the devils also believe and tremble,
James ii. 19. but then they have no faith on or towards
God; no trust in him and dependence on him; they
have cast off allegiance to him, and have rebelled
against him; and much less have they any faith in
Christ; for though they know him, and cannot but
assent to the truth of things concerning him, yet can
have no faith in him as their Redeemer and Saylout:
and therefore they themselves very justly observed,
What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ?
they had nothing to do with him as Jesus a Saylear,
and could wish they had nothing to do with him as the
Son of God, to whom all .judgment is committed, and
theirs also, and therefore dread him; but faith in him
as a Saylout they could not exercise, for he was not
provided as such for them; he took not on him their
nature; he was not sent, nor did he come, to seek and
save them, nor to die for them; when they sinned
God spared them not, made no provision of grace for
them, nor promise of it to them, but cast them down
from heaven to hell, and his reserved them in chains
of darkness to the judgment of the great day, to ever-
lasting wrath and damnation; so that there is not the
least ground for faith and hope in Christ concerning
their salvation.
Secondly, Men only are the subjects of the grace
of faith; and, not all men; for all men have not faith,
2 Thess. iii. 2. that is, special faith in God and Christ;
there are but fews who have it; there are many who
never heard of Christ, of his gospel, and of the way of
life and salvation by him; and how shall they believe in

have heard of him, and of the gee news o ·    '
by him, they have not all obeyed the gospel; .for Esaias
saith, Lord, who hath believed our report ? Rom. x. 14,
! 6. There are some who do not belong to Christ, are
none of his; and which is a reason why they do not
believe in him; and is a reason which Christ himself
gives, and a better cannot be given; Ye believe not,
because ye are not of my sheep; they that are the sheep
of Christ hear his voice, by which faith comes; they
know him spiritually and savingly; they follow him,
and yield the obedience of faith unto him, John x. 26,
27. There are some of whom it is said, they could not
believe, because they were left of God to the blindness

' Qute (tides) donurn Dei est singulare et rarum, Luther de Servo
Arbitrio, c. 92. p. 14e.

and hardness of their hearts; and whose minds, by
permission, the god of this world blinds, lest the gos-
pel should shine into them, and so they believe not,
John xii. 39, 40. 2 Cot. iv. 4. In short, none but the
elect of God become true believers in Christ, and all
these do, in God's due time, and through the efficacy
of his grace; so it has been, and so it ever will be,
until they are all brought to believe in Christ; as
many as were ordained unto eternal life believed, Acts
xiii. 48. for, the belief of the truth, of Christ, who is the
truth, and of the gospel of truth, that comes by him, is
the means through which God has chosen men to sal-
vation; and which is as certain to them thereby as the
thing itself; for faith is given in consequence of this
choice, and is peculiar to the objects of it; hence called
the faith of God's elect, 2 Tttess. ii. t3. Tit. i. 1. such
only are the partakers arid subjects of this grace, who
are. regenerated, called, and sanctified. Such that re-
ceive Christ and believe in him are described as born of
~]God; yea, it is asserted, that whosoever believerb that
 Jesus is the Christ is born of God, John i. 12, 13.
{1 J6hn v. 1. whomsoever God calls by his grace with
 an holy calling, he bestows faith upon them; whoever
are converted and turned to the Lord, believe in him;
faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit in sanctification,
Gal. v. 22. none but such who are made spiritually
alive believe in Christ; whilst men are dead in tres-
passes and sins they are in unbelief, in a state of unbe-
lief, as the apostle was before conversion, shut up in
it till mercy is displayed in quickening and relieving
them; there must be first spiritual life before there can
be faith; hence says Christ, whosoever liveth and be-
lieverb in me sh. all never die, John xi. 26. As well may
a dead carcass fly, as a dead sinner believe in Christ,
or have any will and desire to it {9}. Such only who are
alive see and hear in a spiritual sense, and believe in
Christ with a special faith, and shall never perish, but
have everlasting life.
Thirdly, Those who are the subjects of this grace
of faith, it is different in them as to the degree and
exercise of it, though it is in all alike precious faith as
to its nature, objects, and acts; and in such is the com-
mon faith, common to all true believers, of which they
have a mutual experience; hence the apostle calls h;s
faith, and the faith of the believing Romans, the mu-
tual faith both of you and ,me; yet as to the measure
and degree of it, it is in some more, in others less;
see 2 Pet. i. 1. Tit. i. 4. Rom. i. 12... 1. In some it
is great faith; instances of which we have in the cen-
turion, and in the woman of Canaan, Matt. viii. 10.
and xv. 28. and many great and heroic actions are
ascribed unto it in Heb. xi. though all its greatness,
power, and efficacy, are to be ascribed to the Object
of it.    2. In some it is but small or little faith; in
God, and in his providence, for the supply of their
temporal wants; in Christ, as to his presence with and
powerful preservation and salvation of them, Matt. vi.
30. and viii. 2& and xiv. 31.. .3. In others it is very
little, least of all; it is like a grain of mustard seed,
which is the least of all seeds, Matt. xvii. 20. and xiii.
32. and as the apostle Paul calls himself less than the

' Nee minus ditticile nobis fuerit ve!le credere, quam difticile fuerit,
cadaveri volare, Bezae Confessio Fidei, c. 4. p. 18.
3Y